A start-up third-party fulfillment company has chosen to sell off its physical assets and transform itself into a software vendor. Sameday.com Inc. of Los Angeles last month sold its fulfillment centers to Miami-based third-party logistics provider Ryder System Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The sale of its operating services unit frees up Sameday to focus on further development and marketing of its Syntempo software for supply chain event management. Supply chain event management software typically alerts users to the occurrence of "exceptions"—unplanned or unwanted events, such as schedule delays or missed shipments. The makers of Syntempo claim that their software can resolve exceptions in real time.

As part of the deal, Ryder will use the Syntempo package as its execution platform at the acquired facilities as well as at another Ryder facility in Alliance, Texas.

Alex Nesbitt, Andrew Krainin, and Tom Hansen started Sameday in 1999 to provide fulfillment service for dot-com merchants. They originally developed the supply chain event management capability to meet the needs of e-tailers.

Ryder plans to take over Sameday's facilities in Memphis, Tenn., and Newark, N.J., and add them to its existing network of fulfillment centers. Ryder's president and chief executive officer, Gregory T. Swienton, notes that the acquisition of those centers will broaden the scope and capabilities of Ryder's fulfillment offering for both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets.